Problem: A rectangle is $3$ inches long. The rectangle is also $7$ inches wide. What is its area?
$3\text{ in}$ $7\text{ in}$ 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 The area is the length times the width. The length is 3 inches. The width is 7 inches. Thus the area is $3\times7$ square inches. $ \text{area} = 3 \times 7 = 21 $ We can also count 21 square inches.